Pupils isolating with Covid led to almost one in four (23.5 per cent) being persistently absent from school lessons during the last autumn term, new government figures reveal.
More than 1.6 million pupils missed 10 per cent or more of their possible sessions in autumn 2021 - this equates to at least seven days of absence from September to December.
The proportion of pupils classed as persistent absentees and absence rates both increased in autumn 2021 compared with the same term of the previous year.
However, there were still more pupils in attendance compared with 2020 because there were higher numbers away from lessons because of “Covid circumstances” during that term. This is because there were stricter rules around contacts of cases isolating and class bubbles being sent home in autumn 2020.
Figures show that the level of persistent absentees was 23.4 per cent in autumn 2021, compared with 13 per cent of pupil enrolments in autumn 2020, and 12.1 per cent of pupils across the whole of the 2020-21 academic year.
The data also shows that 6.9 per cent of sessions overall - equivalent to half a day at school - were recorded as having an absence in the autumn term of 2021, having been consistently below 5 per cent in recent years.
The Department for Education said the level of persistent absence in autumn 2021 was largely due to the level of positive Covid rates at the time.
A single full Covid isolation period would count as a persistent absence. Pupils are identified as persistent absentees if they miss 10 per cent or more of their possible sessions.
Persistent absence through illness - including positive Covid cases - accounted for 14 per cent of pupils in autumn 2021, the new data shows.
There has also been an increase in the number of pupils missing more than half of their education in the autumn term.
The statistics show that 98,000 pupils missed 50 per cent or more sessions in the autumn term (1.4 per cent of all pupils).
This compares to 93,500 in autumn 2020 and 60,200 in autumn 2019, the final full term before the pandemic began.
Although there has been an increase in persistent absence and absence rates in the autumn term of 2021, the DfE data says that when combining absence with pupils “not attending due to Covid circumstances”, there was a decrease from a combined rate of 11.7 per cent in autumn 2020 to 8.5 per cent in autumn 2021.
The DfE said this means a higher rate of pupils were in attendance in schools in autumn 2021 compared to the previous autumn.
The data shows that the rate of sessions recorded as not attending due to Covid circumstances decreased to 1.6 per cent in autumn 2021 from 7 per cent in the previous autumn, and 21.3 per cent for the 2020-21 academic year in full.
The DfE said the figures reflect the fact that public health guidance in the 2020-21 academic year included both stricter rules around isolation, such as class bubbles, and a period of national restrictions, where attendance was prioritised for vulnerable and key worker children.
During national lockdowns, all other pupils would be recorded as not attending due to Covid circumstances.
For the autumn term of 2021, this category was used to record where a pupil was absent from school with symptoms of Covid while awaiting the results of a test or isolating as close contacts. These figures do not include absence due to positive Covid cases.
